Overview: The Sahara desert has long separated Asian and Mediterranean cultures from the rest of Africa, where a rich variety of cultures emerged. There is a further barrier across the continent: the Sahel, a belt of semi-arid savannah that stretches from the Atlantic to the Nile, dividing the Sahara itself from the forested regions to the south. Very different cultures emerged here and in the wetter rainforests.
The ethnic and linguistic variety in Africa is overwhelming. More than 4,000 people groups are classified within 54 people clusters, 20 of which are varieties of Bantu, a diverse and geographically widespread family of peoples and languages that dominates central and southern Africa.